Method of making articles of wickerware



H. F. SHAW METHOD OF MAKING ARTICLES OF WICKERWARE Nov. 20 1923.

Filed July 19 1921 H. F. SHAW METHOD OF MAKING ARTICLES OF WICKERWARE Filed July 19 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Iii/v.6 :10 i0 2 Hamoid .1555 may Patented Nov. 2%), H923.

* nrnrnn HAROLD F. SHAW, 0F LEOMINSTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASEEGNOE 130 F. A. WHITNEY CARRIAGE GOEEPANY, OF LECPI /ENSTEB, TJIAFESAGH'USETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

METHOD OF MAKING ARTICLES OF WICKERNABE.

Application filed July 19,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, i lanorlo F. SHAW, a cltizen of the United States, and a resident of Leominster. in the county of Worcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Methods of Making Articles of /Vickerware, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts. 1

This invention relates to basketry and more particularly to the expeditious construction of articles woven from such materials as have a certain stiffness as distinguished from freely flexible materials such as used in the ordinary textile fabrics. Examples are so-called reed or the woody part of the rattan, cane, willow or osiers and'the like, all commonly associated with basketry, and substitutes therefor, such, for example, as paper reed. All these materials when woven possess a certain stiffness and form what may be called a stake and strand fabric as distinguished from the warp and weft fabric oftho ordinary textiles. For convenience I shall refer to such fabrics as wicker fabrics, using that word in a somewhat extended sense to include the various kinds of material referred to. v

My invention may best be understood by reference to the vfollowing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein. as an example of my invention, I have shown steps in the production of the edge roll for the hood of a baby carriage although it will be understood that the invention is of a generic character adapted for use in the production of articles of varying utility and widely different forms.

In the drawings:

t Fig. 1 is a plan of a blank fabric;

Fig. 2 is a plan showing the blank of Fig. 1 prepared for shaping;

3 is a front elevation of a'baby carriage hood having an edge roll constructed in accordance with my invention; and

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3 on an enlarged scale.

My invention is applicable to shaping a wicker fabric which may itself be expeditiously made, if desired by machine. into articles of varying form and in particular of woven wicker 1921. Serial no. 485,901.

to those having a double curvature, and as an example I have herein shown an edge roll around the front of the hood of a baby carriage. Referring to Figs. 3 and 4, such a roll as there shown as an example of the invention consists of a body which cross sectionally' is practically a 7 complete circumference, as shown in Fig. 4, and which in elevation has an arched form comprising the straight central portion 00Z in which the roll has a substantially cylindrical shape, the curved lateral Zones b.0 and, d@ terminating in the straight but conveniently.

somewhat tapered portions ab and ef. It will. be understood, however, that my invention is applicable to articles having a curved shape throughout or curved portions arranged in connection with straight portions other than in the manner shown in Fig. 8 and also to articles of cross sectional extent and shape different from those illustrated by Fig. 4:. r

My invention provides for producing a shaped article of the nature shown from a uniform piece of wicker fabric, the complete article having a pleasing appearance without suggestion of patching or adaptation and in particular provision is made for reproducing closely the appearance of articles shaped during the weaving process in a manner possible only by skilled hand labor. The application of the method to yarious articles wil be clear to those skilled in the art by the following detailed description by way of example of the method of constructing the particular article illustrated, that is, a hood roll.

Referring to Fig; 1, I there show a wicker fabric woven uniformly as a flat sheet from any of the materials commonly used for such purpose and comprising the stakes 5 corresponding to the warp of a. textile fabric and the filler strands 7 corresponding to the weft. The fabric may be expeditiously produced by a suitable machine as a needleloom and in this instance the stakes 5 may desirably be of fiber reed and the fillerstrands either' of the same material or of genuine reed or cane.

Let us suppose that we wish to construct the roll shown in Fig. 3. For this purpose a blank as shown in Fig. 1 may he -provided having filler strands of a length to extend around the margin of the hood from side the stakes'do not occupy theparallel posito side and of sufficient number to provide a fabric of a width sufficient to bend into a roll of desired size. veniently longer and project at either side of the fabric as shown. These open spaces may either be provided for in the original weaving of the fabric or filler strands may be removed.

A blank such as shown in Fig. I obviously may be rolled up along the stakes 5 into substantially cylindrical form. Referring to Fig. 3, however, it will be seen that in an article of double curvature herring the pleasing appearance there shown, such is effected by known methods of hand weavin tion which they do in a woven fabric as shown in Fig. 1. The distance between adjace n't stakes around the toric section de measured along the filler strand 1, for instance, is less than the distance measured along the strand F. In the completed artiole the stakes 5 extend substantially radially, using that word in a somewhat generic sense. In other words, in any part of the roll, whether straight or curved, the stakes extend substantially along the radius of curvature of the roll at that particular point.

In accordance with my invention 1 provide for positioning the stakes in the woven fabric in such manner that they will have the desired position in the finished article as shown in Fig. 3. Preferably this is effected by displacing them from their original angular position relative to the filler strands 7 while the fabric is still in the flat andthe strands can be easily manipulated. Referring to. Figs. 1 and 2 which respectively show the blank before and after the strands have been displaced, I have thereshown the blank marked off in zones corresponding to the lettered zones of the hood in Fig. 3. Since the central zone 0(Z is in substantially cylindrical form, no shifting of the stakes 5 is'required therein. In the lateral zones 6 0 and cZ-e. however. the stakes may be differentially bent as shown in Fig. 2' to. bring them to the approximate posis tion' relative to the adjacent filler strands which theywill occupy in the con'ipleted ar-.

tic le. Roughly speaking, we may say that the central portion of the blank will occupy the outer circumference of the roll and the edges the inner circumference and the distance between adjacent stakes in the zones bc and (Z@ will be greater along the central portion than along the side portions. The stakes 5-in these zones are therefore bent, their middle portions being drawn towards the ends of the blank in the example where the roll is substantially symmetrical, and successive stakes are given a progressively greater curvature as will be well understood.

portion of the fabric in the zone a6 issubstantlally cylindrical but to compen- The stakes 5 are consate for the varying length of the strands 7 alon the curved portion 6-0, the stakes in this zone czb are compensatingly bent, as shown in Fig. 2; being, however, substantially parallel one to another. In this zone in the finished article as shown in Fig. 3 the stakes are parallel and in fact this por tion of the roll in itself might be formed by merely bending a plain fabric blank. But in the one piece roll the stakes of zone a-b are at an angle to those of zone 0-cZ, this angle being the same for all the stakes and the same as that of the outermost stake of zone 7)-.(. Therefore, while the stakes of zone 7i-0 are differentially bent and by the differences are permitted to take the differing angular positions as shown in Fig. .3, the stakes of zone a-b are bent to compen sate for the displacement of the stakes in zone t o and the bending of each is the same.

" The blank being suitably preparedas shown in Fig. 2, the edge thereof may be secured to the front bow 9 of the baby carriage hood by means of brads 11 as illustrated in Fig. l preferably overlying the fabric 13 which covers the body of the hood as shown. I prefer to secure the edge of the blank so that the latter projectsrearwardly over the body and bend up the roll with a reverse bend as shown. The roll is,

out proceeding from one end to the other rather than a lifting away bodily.

Before the second edge of the roll is finally.

secured the stakes in the lateral zones of the roll must be drawn tight and this may conveniently be effected in connection with the bending of the roll to shape. The matter will be more readily understood by reference to Fig. 2 in which the prepared blank has a form which is substantially a development in a plane of the three dimensional roll illustrated in Fig. 3. .Qbviously, however, the cross sectional perimeter of the roll at any point is substantially the distance between the upper and lower filler strands illustrated in the figure and this represents the interwoven length of any stake in the completed roll. Now in the prepared blank of Fig. 2 theportions of the bent stakes in the zone cZ-e, for example, which are interwoven with the filler strands are longer than this distance and consequently they must be shortened in the formation of the roll. The

shaping of the roll and thiss hortening of the stakes where necessary may'conveniently be effected by seizing the endsof the stakes and pulling them down over the form in a generally radial direction toward the center of curvature of the completed roll shown in Fig. 3. This pulling or tcnsioning takes up the surplus length of the stakes and firmly consolidates the shaped article. The pulling of the stakes by a pull applied substantially in a radial plane may also somewhat alter their position and compensate for any irregularity in their initial position. By displacing the stakes of the woven fabric of Fig. 1 to the position shown in Fig. 2, which is substantially a plane development of the roll, they are brought at least approximately to their final position. The pulling on the stakes takes up a surplus as above described and while it may also serve to correct any inaccuracies of the blank of Fig. 2, it will be understood that any shifting movement of the plane of each stake is not a violent displacement of the stake but merely a straightening out and positioning thereof such as is effected when a slightly loose cord or rope is drawn up tight.

For convenience I will recapitulate briefly the detailed steps of the preferred method of making the one piece hood roll illustrated in Fig. 8. A flat sheet of Wicker fabric is cut to suitable length and width as shown in Fig. 1. The stakes of this blank are then displaced, conveniently by utilizing a suitable form, and pulled into the positions shown in Fig. 2 which are approximately those which they would occupy in a hand woven roll which had been removed from the hood and flattened out. In other words, the blank of Fig. 2 is substantially a plane development of the shaped roll as shown in Fig. 3. The flat piece thus prepared as shown in Fig. 2 is then attached along one edge to the frame of the hood and shaped over a suitable form, preferably by pulling on the ends of the stakes, as already described. In the shaping of the roll any portion of the bent stake which is interwoven with the filler strand in assuming a position. perpendicular to the curvature of the roll must necessarily be shortened and this pulling on the stakes takes up the slack. While this is being done, the filling strands slide by one another due to the strands further out taking their position on the longer radius. After the roll is shaped the form can be removed and the other edge is then fastened to the frame.

The completed article is of pleasing appearance identical with that of articles constructed by hand and shaped during the weaving operation. Obviously the method is.

adaptable to articles of varying shape. If desired the arrangement of the strands can also be altered in the manner described in my copending application Serial No. 458,293. filed'April 4:, 1921. I have. described as a preferable method the shifting of the stakes 5 while the fabric is in the flat as shown in Fig. 2 but within the broader ranges of my invention the order of the steps might be altered but preferably the shiftingis effected before the fabric is given its double curvature in two directions. I herein refer specifically to stakes or strands and have stated that the stakes correspond to the warps of the woven fabric and the strands'to the weft. Obviously, however, the words are used here for the purpose of discrimination in the description and not as a limitation of the way the fabric is made. Generally, of course, the elements 5 which are'displaced are relatively widely spaced as compared with the parts extending in the other direction. With these considerations in mind, the principles exemplified by, the above described specific embodiment of my invention which I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent I shall express in the following claims.

Claims:

1. The method of forming a three dimensional wicker article in which the stakes have non-parallel positions characterized by providing a fiat woven blank and displacing certain stakes in the plane of the fabric to provide a fiat, partially formed blank approximating a development in a plane of the desired article and then bending the blank to its three dimensional form.

2. The method of forming a three dimensional wicker article in which the stakes have non-parallel positions characterized by providing a flat woven blank and displacing certain stakes in the plane of the fabric to provide a fiat, partially formed blank approximating a development in a plane of the desired article, bending the blank to its three dimensional form and drawing up the stakes.

3. The method of forming a wicker article of double curvature from a fiat woven blank which comprises displacing certain stakes in the plane of the blank to the positions rela tively to the filler strands which they are to occupy due to the curving of said strands,

bending the blank along the filler strands to to one curvature and along the stakes to the intersecting curvature.

4. The method of forming a wicker article of double curvature from a flat woven blank which comprises displacing certain stakes in the plane of the blank to the positions relatively to the filler strands which they are to occupy due to the curving of said strands, bending the blank along the filler strands to one curvature and along the stakes to the intersecting curvature and drawing up the displaced stakes to fit them into the contour of the completed article.

5 placing stakes in lateral zones thereof along the strands differentially to the approximate positions they are to occupy relative to the strands due to the arched form of the roll,

displacing stakes in terminal zones to coin? pensate for change in position of those in 10 the lateral zones and thenshaping the fabric to form.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification. V

HAROLD F. SHAW. 

